I read the novel by Alexandra Ripley and found it cowardly and ham handed. Ripley missed a golden opportunity to show us the South after the War with all its horrors and triumphs. Even had Ripley glossed over the beginnings of Jim Crow with a straight romance, Scarlett would never, never, never, give up Tara. To imagine her doing so is to belittle her love of the land inherited from her father and the bond between father and daughter. Worse, it turns our fierce independent heroine into a lovesick nitwit who would throw away her birthright for a mess of Irish pottage. By making up out of whole cloth some faux Irish near royalty, the movie guts the strength of the O'Hara immigrant experience and betrays both the original novel and the movie.
The movie from such a weak brew could only be weak, cowardly and ham handed. Although Whalley is certainly a delicate looking creature as Leigh was and Dalton is a decent stand-in for Gable, they have nothing to work with but a tortured and convoluted avoidance of the South, its heritage, its tragedies and its strengths.
The movie from such a weak brew could only be weak, cowardly and ham handed. Although Whalley is certainly a delicate looking creature as Leigh was and Dalton is a decent stand-in for Gable, they have nothing to work with but a tortured and convoluted avoidance of the South, its heritage, its tragedies and its strengths.